He chuckled in a mirthless manner. “It seemed pointless. It seemed, as well, that you had made your choice. I couldn’t bear the thought of watching you marry another man, of seeing you as someone else’s wife. So I left England altogether and had no intention of returning.” He blew a long breath. “It didn’t take me long to understand what a fool I’d been. I should have seen how shocked you were and I should have ignored what you said. I knew you better than to accept your words, or at least I should have. I should have done everything you said you were hoping I’d do. I should have fought for you. For us.”

“But you didn’t.”

“No, I didn’t.”

She chose her words with care. “If you’d had all these revelations, why didn’t you come back after Harold died?”

“Come running back to the woman who didn’t want me?” Disbelief rang in his voice. “I had had my heart broken once before. I was not about to allow the same woman to break it for a second time. Although, admittedly, it might well have been pride.”

“I never thought you to be a coward, Grayson Elliott.”

“Love makes fools of us all.” He took a sip of his brandy. “As we are confessing, there is something else you should know.”

“Go on.”

“I tried to put you out of my thoughts, just as you put me out of yours. In that, I suspect you were more successful than I was. Oh, but I did try.” He smiled wryly. “I could go for days, weeks, months, without thinking of you. And yet, somehow, when I least expected it, when I wasn’t at all prepared, there you were. In a laugh heard across a theater. Or the first fresh breeze of spring. Or another woman’s kiss. Or my dreams.” His gaze met hers. “No matter how far I ran, you were always there.”

“No, Grayson.” Her heart twisted. She ignored it. “I was here. Where you left me.”

“I know.” He drew a deep breath. “I know it may well be impossible, but can you forgive me?”

“Oddly enough, I thought I had,” she said quietly, then straightened her shoulders. “That’s it, then?”

“Yes.”

“You have nothing more to say?” Nothing about the wealth you’ve acquired? The fortune you’ve built?

“No.” He shook his head. “I have explained my actions, or lack thereof.”

“You have no additional confession, no revelations, nothing of that nature?” She studied him intently.

“No, nothing.”

“I see.” She picked up her glass, drained the rest of her brandy and hoped he would attribute the slight tremble in her hand to the liquor, and not to her heart. “We always did have honesty between us, didn’t we?”

He nodded.